PAUL CAIRNEY reckons he was denied a stonewall penalty and Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels’ past comments may have played a part in now landing the Hibs man a ban for diving.

The Easter Road midfielder, for the second successive game between the clubs, was involved in the main talking point after being central to a controversial spot-kick incident.

In September, Cairney’s tumble in the box under a challenge from Killie defender Ryan O’Leary resulted in ref Steven McLean awarding his team a match-winning penalty.

Shiels accused the Hibs man of going down too easily. But this time, with this clash poised at 1-1 just after the hour, Cairney didn’t get the key decision when clattered by Michael Nelson. The Hibee was clearly caught by the centre-back, having surged into the box.

But while the penalty call was debatable as Cairney may have lost control of the ball, the decision of ref Bobby Madden to book him was a scandal.

Cairney said: “It’s a stonewaller. The boy caught me and I’m an honest player. I wouldn’t go down easily.

“I said to the boy after the game, ‘Is it a penalty?’ He said, ‘Yes’. The referee thought it was a dive but it definitely wasn’t.The Killie player said he caught me and I’ve seen the replay.”

When asked if the fuss created after the previous incident three months ago may have been a factor, Cairney added: “Maybe.

“I don’t know what the ref’s position was but I told him to look back at it on TV.”

To rub salt into the wounds, Cairney will now be banned for the first SPL game after the January break and manager Pat Fenlon added: “The players say it was a penalty and Paul says he was caught.

“These things happen. I’m not one who is going to come in and criticise the referee. If he got it wrong I’m sure he’ll hold his hands up.

“But I’m more disappointed with the yellow card because we’ll lose the player through suspension for one game.

“Maybe I need to moan a bit more and get us a few, but you just have to take it. Paul doesn’t go down easy. He gets kicked and he gets up, as we encourage all the players to do.”

It was a shame the incident should cloud a contest full of excitement and decent play. Killie, with Jimmy Nicholl in the dugout as Shiels sat suspended in the stand, made a flying start and were in front after just six minutes.

Alan Maybury’s foul on James Dayton gave Borja Perez the chance to bend a free-kick for the bottom corner.

Kilmarnock take the lead through Paul Heffernan's delicate lob

Ben Williams made a flying stop but Hibs’ attempts at clearing up the mess were a shambles and Nelson’s powerful header back into the danger area allowed Paul Heffernan to sprint through and lob home.

At this stage the hosts were dominant and Heffernan glanced a header just a foot wide from Dayton’s cross.

Hibs gradually came to life, with Leigh Griffiths, predictably, the spark. Having won a free-kick, the striker shot just over before creating an equaliser for Eoin Doyle.

Taking a David Wotherspoon pass on the right, he rolled a tempting ball across the face of the six-yard line.

Michael Nelson can't stop Eoin Doyle's effort from drawing Hibs level

Cammy Bell got a touch to the centre but the Irish striker adjusted his feet smartly to sweep home after 26 minutes.

Cillian Sheridan had a shot saved before Heffernan’s quick feet set up full-back Jeroen Tesselaar to swipe over.

It was an even game at the break but Hibs controlled most of it after the restart and Cairney had a golden chance when taking the pass of the game from Griffiths.

Instead of shooting first-time, he took a touch and his dink over the advancing Bell was cleared off the line by the backtracking James Fowler.

Then came the spot-kick drama, where Cairney even found an ally in Nelson. The Killie man said: “I just told him there was contact. I’m not the referee, I can’t give a penalty.

“He asked if I caught him and I said yes but how far down he was when I caught him I don’t know because he slipped the ball to the side and was already coming down.

“It would probably be given five times out of 10 but the booking was harsh. It’s doubly harsh he gets booked as well. Just because the referee doesn’t think it’s a penalty doesn’t automatically make it a dive, so that was harsh.

“You can’t blame the referee for that as that’s what they’re told. If they’re not going to give a penalty everyone jumps on them straight away and says you have to book him for diving.

“Maybe they just have to use a little bit of common sense as sometimes there is contact but the ball’s gone.

“Cairney will feel hard done by as it will lead to him getting a suspension further down the line and we wouldn’t be too happy if that’d happened to us.”

Fenlon, to be fair, didn’t go crazy over the incident.

Despite obvious frustration, the Hibs boss chose to concentrate on the positive final hour produced by his team. He said: “I felt we deserved to win. We shaded the game, without having loads of chances.

“We started sluggish but after 15 or 20 minutes we passed the ball quite well.”